A monticule is a small hill. Sounds rather friendly, doesn’t it? The sort of place you’d walk up to enjoy a picnic involving ginger beer and home made cake. A monticule can also be a mini mound caused by a volcano.

Here’s the view from a hill (quite a big one) I climbed up one summer. Recognise it?

Clue … instead of climbing up, you could just swan about down the bottom.

Umbriferous means providing shade.
The depth of Lydford Gorge would make it a pleasantly shady place to walk in summer, even without the umbriferous canopy of vegetation.

I hope to keep this post compendious, that is comprehensive yet fairly brief. To write so compendiously would demonstrate my compendiousness, which would be nice.

Cakes are also nice (and round here they’re comprehensively dealt with in a very brief time).

Fatalism can mean either a submissive attitude to events as being inevitable, or the belief that everything is predetermined and that we have no influence over anything which may happen. A fatalist is a person who thinks fatalistically.

I’m not a fatalist. Some things are out of our control, and luck plays a part, but I believe that it’s generally possible for us to influence the future.

What about you?

Rich means having lots of money, or other items of value. It can mean splendid, costly or elaborate eg richly decorated or patterned. Alternatively it’s used to describe abundance. eg my mind contains a rich supply of story ideas.

Soil which is rich contains plenty of nutrients and is very fertile. Richness in our own food comes from fat or spices. Engines can have too rich a fuel and air mix.

Sounds, scents and colours are often described as rich when they’re heavy, full or deep.

The phrase that’s rich is sometimes used to convey the idea something is considered outrageous, ludicrous or extremely amusing.

Do you have any riches?

OK, brand new is a phrase and not a word and this may be more of a rant than an explanation*, but this has been bothering me for a while … Why do people (particularly those in marketing) say something is brand new? The only definition I’ve been able to find is ‘completely new’. But new is like pregnant, dead or unique – either you are or you’re not. You can’t be slightly pregnant or fairly unique and an object can’t be just a little bit new.

While I’m ranting, semi-naked is just as bad. There’s no such thing. A person may not be wearing many clothes, but saying someone who’s removed their shirt is semi-naked is like referring to someone as mildly dead. (Unlike the people who built the sphinx who are really, totally and absolutely completely dead)

Are there any redundant or illogical expressions which annoy you?